Testify About Health Care: Let's Share Stories and Make a Difference * UPDATED *

A couple of us have been talking about doing something. Won't you join us?

WHO
Widows and widowers with blogs, Facebook pages, or other media.

WHAT
Please join us in creating a collection of individual testimonials about health care and health insurance in the U.S. You can be for or against specific policies but you must base your post on facts and not simply state your opinion. The goal is to provide real stories about the strengths and weaknesses of the health care “system.” Wear your “civic” and “civil” hats when you write: your testimony should aim to elevate discussion, not provoke.

WHEN
No deadline; project is ongoing.

WHERE
All over the Internet, starting here on Freshwidow.

WHY
I believe that many of us who’ve faced loss can offer unique perspectives on what works and what doesn’t in our health care system. By consolidating our responses, we hope to gain visibility and shed some light on the debate over reform.


HOW DO I PARTICIPATE?
1. Write your story. Please limit it to your actual experiences and be specific. Suggestions: Give background, assume the reader doesn’t regularly read your blog. Provide numbers to strengthen your case.
2. Write a headline that gives an idea of your specific perspective and topic.
3. Post your testimonial on your blog or in a note on Facebook. If you use a blog, please consider allowing comments on this post, even if you don’t normally do so. If you use Facebook, make sure people who aren't your friends can see your "notes."
4. Come to the Health Care Testimonials post and add the link to your specific post. There will be a "Simply Linked" form (like “Mr. Linky”) set up to make it easier. Put BOTH of these things under "link title": your name or your blog name (or both), your post title.
5. Go back to your blog and update your post to include the link to the Health Care Testimonials.
Here's the code to do that:

<a> href="http://freshwidow.blogspot.com/2009/10/testimonials-about-health-care-testing.html"> * * * Read more testimonials about health care by widows and widowers here * * *</a>

6. Tell everyone! Circulate the link to this post, include it in widgets on your blog, Tweet it, add to your Facebook status, etc.

UPDATE
Question: What if my story is boring? Like, we had insurance and everything was covered?
Answer:  Your story will STILL be of great value! A lot of people (I am thinking in Congress) don't understand much about real life medical situations, so the testimonial (with context) will help illustrate, in your case, how the system DOES work. For example, part of my story is that Gavin was self-employed and born with a heart problem, but he was covered by a state "high risk pool" program. Without that, he would have had no insurance for 30 years b/c his income was too high for Medicaid.

I'm firmly convinced that sharing our experiences can illuminate the boring details for many people, so keep those questions and ideas coming and JOIN US!


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